The Battle Back Competition is typically a major part of Big Brother. It gives pre-jury evictees a chance to fight to come back and claim the title, and it can really mess with the current houseguests’ game, which is why it’s so fun! But the Battle Back isn’t a given each season. Will Season 23 be missing a Battle Back? Here are all the clues it can’t happen this year.
Will there be a Battle Back in ‘Big Brother’ Season 23?
At this point, it’s pretty much been confirmed that a Battle Back is not happening. For one thing, logistically it would be very difficult to do in 2021. All reality TV shows are still undergoing rigorous testing and restrictions for filming, and even then, it’s not uncommon for COVID-19 outbreaks to happen on set.
Source: CBS
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Love Island USA saw five positive COVID-19 cases on its set this season, and Big Brother already had its own outbreak as well. Though no cast member reportedly caught the virus, nine crew members did. Many reality shows have gone the route of the “bubble,” meaning that they film at one designated location where anyone coming or going has to get tested to be sure they’re not bringing the virus into the bubble, but the system isn’t foolproof.
For a Battle Back Competition to happen in Big Brother Season 23, the pre-jury evictees would likely have had to stay in the bubble. It would be a huge risk for Big Brother to fly the evictees back to the house. Even with them getting tested upon their return, there’s still a chance that something could go very wrong and one missed case leads to a huge outbreak.
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Big Brother has no idea what these evictees have been up to, who they’ve been mingling with, or where they’ve been traveling since they left. Plus, it would look messy if they only brought back some evictees and not all of them due to travel restrictions.
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At this point in the game, it also seems unlikely that a Battle Back will happen thanks to the shortened season. We’ve yet to see any double or triple evictions, which would have to happen in order for the Battle Back to occur, but there are rumors that a triple eviction is on the horizon in September. Will it be for a Battle Back? Likely not the kind of Battle Back we’ve previously seen on the show.
The pre-jury evictees did not stay quarantined at the house.
Thanks to a Reddit post, we know that the pre-jury evictees did not stay quarantined at the house to compete at the Battle Back. In July of 2021, Travis Long, who was evicted in Week One, was caught at an airport in Hawaii, his home state. If Travis went all the way home after leaving Los Angeles, he and the other early evictees most likely aren’t making the trek back for the Battle Back.
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Still, fans are hopeful that things might change. If we can’t have a pre-jury evictee Battle Back, could we have a jury Battle Back instead? It still seems unlikely, but if Derek X. goes home as viewers are expecting him to, perhaps we’ll be hearing about a new twist.
Watch Big Brother Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.